With its category-leading features, KT880 is widely welcomed by the mainboard industry

Taipei, Taiwan, 12 February 2004 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions,today announced that the new VIA KT880 dual channel chipset has been selected by the world’s leading mainboard vendors including Asus, Gigabyte and MSI to power their flagship AMD Athlon XP processor platforms.

“With the launch of the KT880 chipset, VIA further extends our leadership position across the entire AMD processor platform,” commented Chewei Lin, Vice President of Product Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. “Our customers are delighted to be able to add innovative new features to their AMD Athlon XP mainboards as they continue to see the platform playing an important role in their AMD product mix through 2004.”

Broad Industry Support for the VIA KT880
The world’s leading motherboard manufacturers have confirmed new AMD Athlon XP flagship mainboard designs featuring the VIA KT880 chipset, including ABIT, Acorp, AsRock, ASUS, Chaintech, DFI, Epox, Gigabyte, Jetway, MSI, Soltek, and Soyo, clearly demonstrating the strong industry support for the platform. Here’s what some of the industry’s foremost vendors are saying about the VIA KT880:

“Our customers are demanding dual channel DDR memory performance and the latest connectivity technologies,” said Joe Hsieh, Vice President, ASUS Motherboard Business Unit, “The VIA KT880 chipset delivers on all counts and is set to power our flagship Socket A motherboards.”

“The VIA Apollo KT880 is the latest in a series of performance chipsets from VIA that have been successfully implemented in our Socket A motherboard range,” saidTony Liao,Associate Vice President,GIGABYTE. “VIA chipsets provide a combination of performance and stability that allows our customers to get the best from their AMD Athlon XP processor based systems.”

“We have a large and loyal fan base of AMD mainboard users who have come to expect a lot from our KT family of boards,” said Jeans Huang, Senior Vice President of R&D Division, MSI. “Our new VIA KT880-based KT880 Delta-FSR will not disappoint these loyal fans.”

About the VIA KT880 Chipset with DualStream64
The VIA KT880 chipset brings DualStream64™ dual channel DDR400 memory performance and VIA VT8237 South Bridge connectivity to the AMD Athlon XP processor platform. Building on the market leading position of the VIA KT Series, the KT880 offers additional category-leading features such as AGP 8X, 400MHz FSB, Native Serial ATA/RAID, in addition to 8-channel audio and Gigabit Ethernet when paired with VIA companion controllers.

The VIA DualStream64 dual channel DDR400 memory controller achieves impressive memory bandwidths of up to 6,400 MB/s by harnessing intuitive technologies such as an enhanced data prefetch protocol, improved memory branch prediction with a larger on-chip branch table, and tighter read/write turn-around for improved clock timings. Furthermore, the high throughput V-Link North/South Bridge interconnect enables a 533MB/s link with the VT8237 South Bridge, allowing maximum system flexibility and optimization options, as is often demanded by today’s power users.

In combination with the acclaimed VIA VT8237 South Bridge, the VIA KT880 offers the most complete range of storage, multimedia and connectivity features for the AMD Athlon XP processor. In addition to enabling native support for two Serial ATA Hard Drives, as well as up to four IDE devices, the VIA DriveStation Controller Suite provides optimal data transfer rates and data integrity through V-RAID, a revolutionary integrated RAID controller with support for RAID Level 0, RAID Level 1, RAID 0+1, and JBOD configurations.

The VT8237 also features the VIA Vinyl Multichannel Audio Suite for superlative 6-channel and 8-channel immersion audio support, while VIA’s Advanced Connectivity Suite offers a host of high-bandwidth connectivity options, including support for the VIA Gigabit Ethernet companion controller, integrated 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet and up to eight high-speed USB 2.0 ports.

The VIA KT880 is part of VIA’s unique Modular Architecture Platform (V-MAP) that reduces design times and shortens time-to-market for motherboard partners through pin-compatibility with VIA core-logic solutions, and allows motherboard partners to cover multiple market segments with a single design.

For further information on the VIA KT880, please see the VIA website at: